Sex and 'slummers’ balconies': The brief, wild days of...

2of66A 1911 street scene on Columbus between Jackson and Pacific in San Francisco.Photo: OpenSFHistory / wnp27.3808.jpg

3of66Union Square Theater (circa 1928) North side of O'Farrell between Powell and Stockton. Opened 1914 as the Gaiety. Also known as the Hippodrome and the Filmarte. Part of Macy's is now on the site. - courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org.Photo: Courtesy of OpenSFHistory.org

4of66The view along San Francisco's Pacific Street, featuring the Barbary Coast club, the unofficial flagship of the area that also featured numerous other clubs and bars, in the 1930s. Other famous nightspots visible on the strip are Bee & Ray Gorman's Gay 90s, the House of Blue Lights, and Pago Pago.Photo: Frederic Lewis/Getty Images

5of66The entrance to the Hippodrome Theater in San Francisco in the early 1900s.Photo: Chris Hunter/Corbis via Getty Images

6of66Spider Kelly's is seen on Pacific Street in the 1920s.Photo: OpenSFHistory / wnp32.0036.jpg

7of66The new remodel of Spider Kelly's in the 1930s.Photo: OpenSFHistory / wnp32.0033.jpg

8of66The Hippodrome on Pacific Street, San Francisco, in the Barbary Coast. The photo, dated November 2, 1933, stated that it was closed for fixing.Photo: Photographer unknown, The Chronicle

9of66Click through to see rare, historical scene photos from the San Francisco Chronicle archives.

10of66From the back of the photo: "When the flood of commuters arrived at the Bay Bridge rail terminal yesterday morning, the San Francisco street car service bogged down. Street cars were forced to inch along First, Fremont and Market Streets. Officials declare the traffic problems will be solved in a few days." January 17, 1939.Photo: Chronicle archives

11of66From the back of the photo: "Downtown shopping jam - Hundreds of thousands fought for walking space in the city's downtown area yesterday, as the Christmas shopping season neared a climax. This scene shows the jam of vehicular and pedestrian Christmas traffic at the Fourth and Market Streets intersection." December 24, 1945Photo: Chronicle archives

13of66Traffic jam on 3rd Street at Market Street in San Francisco, July 25, 1937.Photo: Chronicle archives

14of66Traffic scene at 3rd and Market Streets in San Francisco, April 1, 1949.Photo: Art Frisch, San Francisco Chronicle

15of66Truck double parked on 5th and Mission Streets, in San Francisco, causing traffic jam. Remedial Loan Co. and the 5th and Market Street Car line can be seen in the photo. February 19, 1948.Photo: Bill Young, San Francisco Chronicle

16of66Looking east on Mission Street, in San Francisco, between 4th and 5th Streets. December 9, 1946Photo: Aaron Rubino, San Francisco Chronicle

19of66From the back of the photo: "Things are tough - After a hard day at the office, this is no fun. Sitting on the cow-catcher is dangerous. But, the passengers ask, 'What can you do if you've got to get home?' Riding on overcrowded street cars is old stuff to San Franciscans. And it happens nearly every night, not just during the Christmas rush." 5:30 p.m. December 22, 1946Photo: Duke Downey, San Francisco Chronicle

25of66Market Street at 5th Street in San Francisco. Shown is the old J.C. Penney Store. December 6, 1945.Photo: Bob Campbell, San Francisco Chronicle

26of66San Francisco traffic scene, Looking up 6th Street, towards Market Street. Visible in the photo is the Hotel Seneca, with a sign that shows the rates as 50 to 75 cents. December 5, 1945Photo: Bob Campbell, San Francisco Chronicle

27of66Post Street, above Powell, in San Francisco. Shown in the photo are the Cecil Hotel, Hotel Andrew, Bank of America and the Barnes-Hind Pharmacy/Labratory that was at 430 Post Street. December 17, 1946Photo: Ken McLaughlin, San Francisco Chronicle

33of66Sir Francis Drake Hotel garage (spaces were all filled), in San Francisco. December 23, 1946Photo: Bill Young, San Francisco Chronicle

34of66From the back of the photo: "Slogan for today--- 'Keep 'Em Moving' - San Francisco police will make a new effort this morning to speed the flow of Bay Bridge traffic as it empties into the city at Fifth and Harrison Streets. This photograph was taken last night on a lead-in approach during the eastbound rush hour. It gives you and idea of what rush hour traffic officers are up against. Photo: Chronicle archives

35of66The RKO Golden Gate Theater can be seen in the photo, taken at Market and 6th Streets. Lionel Hampton Band and Revue was appearing. Left hand traffic from 6th Street was held up by Taylor Street line. December 6, 1945.Photo: Chronicle archives

36of66Traffic scene on Bush Street, near Grant Avenue in San Francisco. Astoria Hotel and Hotel Victoria can be seen on the right. 1940sPhoto: Chronicle archives

37of66Ellis Street, between Powell and Stockton Streets in San Francisco, John's Grill can be seen in the photo. February 19, 1948.Photo: Duke Downey, San Francisco Chronicle

38of66Post Street at Mason Street in San Francisco. The YWCA can be seen on the right. 3:45 p.m. December 18, 1945Photo: Chronicle archives

39of66Golden Gate Avenue and Larkin Street, in San Francisco, shows a double parked truck, causing a traffic jam. The YMCA can be seen in the background. Ca. 1940'sPhoto: Bill Young, San Francisco Chronicle

40of66Market and Powell Streets in San Francisco. From the back of the photo: "Traffic Tide - Four lines of street cars, two lines of car traffic - all crossed by Christmas shoppers - makes traffic move at low speed on Market and Powell Streets during the homebound rush hours. The picture shows unwieldy condition of San Francisco traffic, duplicated morning and night and a good part of the day in all downtown streets. Early darkness in this crush adds to the city's traffic hazards." December 14, 1945Photo: Chronicle archives

41of66Grant Avenue and Post Street in San Francisco. The Owl Drug Store can be seen in the photo. January 1946.Photo: Chronicle archives

45of66Passengers sitting on a streetcar cow-catcher at Church, 14th and Market Streets in San Francisco, ca 1930's.Photo: Chronicle archives

46of66San Francisco traffic scene on Kearny Street between Sutter and Post Streets, looking south at 8:35 a.m. on December 11, 1946Photo: Chronicle archives

47of66From the back of the photo: "Folly by golly and lots of it, when hurried commuters seek to catch a trolley on Market Street. The Market Street Railway asks San Francisco to 'Stop This Folly!' Citizens who want to end the folly of four lines of street cars on Market Street; citizens who want to end the folly of overcrowded cars; citizens who want to end the folly of snail's pace traffic, will vote YES on Proposition No. 1.Photo: Chronicle archives

48of66fire engine answering an alarm. If cars had been stopped in the second lane (as they usually were) the engines could not have gone up Stockton Street, from Ellis, in San Francisco. Ca. 1930'sPhoto: Chronicle archives

50of66Looking south at Stockton, Ellis and Market Streets in San Francisco. Street cars had to slow down for the droves of pedestrians , then sandwich their way through. Ca. 1930'sPhoto: Chronicle archives

51of66From the back of the photo: "Market Street scene! One misstep would be folly to the gentleman in the above picture. YES on Proposition No. 1 will end the folly of four lanes of street car tracks on Market Street. 'Stop This Folly' cry the placards of the Market Street Railway cars. Every night the traffic jam stops those Toonerville Follies. Plugging for the 2 cent fransfers, the corporation says to vote no. To end the folly of the Toonerville Trolley, to end the folly of slow traffic, vote YES on Proposition No. 1." November 1, 1937Photo: Chronicle archives

52of66Street car jam on Market Street, near the Ferry Building in San Francisco, while people wait for transportation in the rain. October 15, 1937Photo: Chronicle archives

53of66Jaywalkers on Market Street in San Francisco, April 26, 1937.Photo: Chronicle archives

57of66From the back of the photo: "Pedestrian Traffic - Pouring to and from the narrow bottleneck of Fifth and Market Streets is a throng of shoppers intent on last minute holiday preparation. At the intersection, man, woman and automobile fight for the right-of-way, while sidewalk crowds flood Market Street. 1:20 p.m. December 24, 1948.Photo: Chronicle archives

59of66From the back of the photo: "What's Wrong With This Picture? - Confusion reigns as Ellis Street traffic gets the green light and pours into Market and Fourth Streets. The 'F' street car and waiting passengers block an entire side of Stockton Street, market Street traffic crowds the flood of vehicles from Ellis, the traffic officer blows his whistle and tries to unsnarl things. It happens every time the signal changes." 4:30 p.m. December 17, 1946Photo: Aaron Rubino, San Francisco Chronicle

60of66From the back of the photo: "Stockton Bottleneck - A typical late afternoon scene in downtown San Francisco, traffic hopelessly jammed, street car operation paralyzed. This occurred at Stockton and Market Streets, where automobiles and street cars share, and have been sharing for years, street area that never has been improved to facilitate modern traffic." 5:00 p.m. December 21, 1946Photo: Aaron Rubino, San Francisco Chronicle

61of66From the back of the photo: "Market Street writes its own plea for rapid transit in the picture. Cars loaded with passengers are helpless in the face of crossing traffic.They wait and their hundreds of passengers must wait with them. Subways would take many street cars and place them below the streets, where there never would be a stop because of crossing automobiles. Easier to get to the job on time, easier to get home for dinner on time with fast moving subsurface cars. October 17, 1937Photo: Chronicle archives

62of66From the back of the photo: "Motorists jam Bay Bridge in transportation strike. Autos move bumper to bumper in three lanes of traffic from toll gate leading onto San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge on June 11, 1947, as strike of the key System bus and train operators tied up East Bay and transbay traffic in a wage dispute with the Key System transportation System. Half a million persons were affected." Photo courtesy of the AP.

63of66Market Street traffic scene in San Francisco on May 20, 1937Photo: Chronicle archives

66of66Full parking, at lot at 4:00 p.m., on Taylor Street, near Eddy Street in San Francisco. December 23, 1946Photo: Bill Young, San Francisco Chronicle

George C. Hoberg, a respectable traveling salesman from the East Coast, had grand plans for his 1910 visit to San Francisco. He checked in first at the St. Francis Hotel, and then prepared for his evening out. George was going “slumming” on Terrific Street.

The stretch of Pacific Ave., between Kearny and Montgomery, was famous all over the nation as one of America’s hottest — and most daring — nightclub scenes. "Terrific Street," so-called because of the excellent ragtime and nascent jazz music being produced there, was dirty, boozy and fun. It was the kind of fun buttoned-up businessmen like George couldn’t resist.

Since the late 1800s, slumming had become a rather ghoulish pastime of the middle and upper classes. Famously practiced in the notorious Five Points of New York City, wealthy interlopers would visit downtrodden neighborhoods as a form of entertainment. Terrific Street was built with slumming in mind; many venues built special "slummers’ balconies," where patrons could safely watch the action from above.

It was there, in the slummers’ gallery of the popular Thalia dance hall, that George C. Hoberg found himself in a bit of trouble. A waitress approached George and informed him he had not purchased enough to drink. Sensing trouble, George made for the exit.

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Old footage of busy crowded streets and a Bank of Italy. (Nuray Pictures/Getty Images)

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"As he started to leave, several waitresses kicked him on the shins," the San Francisco Call reported. George drew his revolver, and the police were summoned. He was hauled off to jail for carrying a concealed weapon.

The next morning, he was called in front of a judge to explain his behavior. George told the sympathetic judge — who no doubt knew all about those Terrific Street ladies — his tale, and all charges were dismissed.

And so George returned home to New York City, hopefully a little wiser.

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From 1907 until the early 1920s, Terrific Street was San Francisco’s bawdiest nightclub scene, springing from the ground that once held the Barbary Coast’s red light district. After the 1906 earthquake leveled much of the neighborhood, the city decided to clean up the blocks of brothels like the Nymphia, a three-story establishment with 150 "cubicles" for business on each floor.

But San Franciscans would not be denied entertainment. In its place, Terrific Street emerged, cultivated by promoters with a genius for money-making gimmicks. Entertainment was big business in San Francisco. On New Year's Eve in 1912, the city anticipated 30,000 people would hit the downtown venues. The Palace Hotel alone served 2,000 diners that night. It was said the bright lights of Terrific Street could be seen across the bay in Oakland, luring in hundreds of revelers each night.

The most adventurous went to Spider Kelly’s, named for its boxer proprietor. Spider Kelly ran the raciest joint in town, and his club was famous for its “key racket.” After a night of dancing with his hired girls, some male patrons would beg to go home with their partner. She would agree, but only on the condition he bought the key to her room. After paying the $5 fee, she’d hand him a key and promise to meet him after closing time for a tryst.

“The dupes wandered around until morning, vainly seeking doors their keys would fit,” the WPA’s guide to San Francisco noted.

When a Chicago police captain toured the area in 1912, he gravely dubbed Spider Kelly's "undoubtedly the worst dive in the world." They probably took it as a compliment.

Spider Kelly's wasn't the only venue using its ladies to turn a tidy profit. When the city banned liquor sales at dance halls in the mid-1910s, the Thalia turned itself into a “dance academy.” For a fee, patrons could pay their staff of lovely ladies to “teach” them how to dance. The practice became known as taxi dancing, a phrase that went mainstream. Well aware of the high demand, the Thalia staffed its dance floor with over 100 female dancers and waitresses.

Another popular stop was Purcell’s at 520 Pacific, a music venue started by Sid Purcell and Sam King, two black Pullman porters-turned-entrepreneurs. Inside Purcell’s, the music was hot and fast. Pianists played up to 30 songs per hour and taped up their fingers like athletes. Dancers at Purcell’s are credited with inventing the Texas Tommy and turkey trot, two dances that would sweep the nation.

But the rowdy fun came with a price: crime. Local newspapers are filled with accounts of fights and robberies. The San Francisco Call wrote in 1908 the street was rife with “pickpockets, thugs, petty thieves, hopheads, dance hall ropers, bunko men, keepers of houses of prostitution and assignation.”

“One time we had a bad shootin’ scrape over at Louie Gomez’s,” he said. “How that drummer didn't get shot, nobody knows! This customer got in a fight and pulled a gun and started shootin’. One of the bullets went right through the bass drum. ...

"They killed that fella as he went out the door; the bartender reached over and hit him with a bottle full a’ whiskey, and then after he hit him, the fellow staggered, and the bartender jammed the rest of the broken bottle in his neck. That cut his jugular veins and his throat, and he fell over and bled to death.”

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Today the building houses an art store but displays a glass window with the moniker Hippodrome next to the main entrance.

Photo: Photo by Rachel H. on Yelp

It was all a bit much for the city government.

In 1913, the San Francisco police commissioner banned alcohol sales in any establishment that also hosted dancing. Laws were passed prohibiting women from visiting any saloon in the city. And in 1920, Prohibition shut down the party for good (although it did find a new home underground).

By 1923, Terrific Street's music scene had dried up, never to return. Some partygoers went to Oakland, others to the Fillmore. Today, you'd never guess the debauchery that once filled its streets. It's a sedate block, lined with green trees, law offices and coffee shops.

There's just one hint at its past life: A pretty, half-moon window with the gold letters "HIPPODROME" curving along it. Now the Artist & Craftsman Supply store, it was once the rollicking Hippodrome club. If you're lucky, you can get a tour inside, where a series of mysterious tunnels run under the building.

Rumor has it, the tunnels were once used to shanghai drunk sailors. But it's easy enough to imagine a Terrific Street partier, realizing their wallet was a little too light for the fun they'd had, escaping out the back door.

Katie Dowd is the Senior Manager for SFGATE. She officially covers all things Bay Area news and sports, but unofficially owns the Chronicle animal beat. If the story is about cats, she probably wrote it.

Before being hired at SFGATE in 2011, Katie was the sports editor for the Daily Californian, the student paper at UC Berkeley. She was also an English major, but her expertise in early 20th century British poetry is less relevant to her current job.

Katie lives in the East Bay and can empathize with you any time about BART delays.